Wilbur Miller

The minor league season is roughly at the halfway point, so it's a good time to look back at the first half to see which players surprised and which disappointed. There are going to be more of the latter than the former. To some extent, this is normal. Prospects are a game...

Yesterday, Pirates Prospects posted State College’s minicamp roster. This serves as something of a preliminary roster for the early season, but there will inevitably be changes as more players from the recent draft sign. In fact, some players have agreed to terms but aren’t listed yet because they haven’t officially signed their...

Except for a rough series this week against Pawtucket, Indianapolis has mostly been playing well for a while now and has had some players on good stretches. Things have been more problematic for the other affiliates. Altoona has been missing a good portion of its lineup (Tony Sanchez was promoted; Matt Curry,...

The Pirates’ selection of Mark Appel in the first round of the 2012 draft was fitting in a way. I’ve always been convinced that the record $5M bonus they paid second-round pick Josh Bell in 2011 was the final straw that led to Bud Selig’s iron determination to get the union to...

The Pirates' announcement that Stetson Allie is moving from the mound to thirdbase is hardly good news. As a pitcher, Allie was rated as a mid-1st round talent at the time of the draft. He had a 100-mph fastball and a devastating slider. I watched both Allie and Jameson Taillon quite a bit in camp in March,...

After some down weeks, the system started getting some improved performances in some key areas recently. One of the most important led to Tony Sanchez getting promoted to AAA. He'll join a team that's been playing well and showing signs of being able to provide some help to the Pirates soon. TRENDING...

So far, it hasn't been the best of all possible seasons for the farm system. Few of the team's hitting prospects are having good seasons and one of the ones who is can't seem to get any recognition for it. On the pitching front, if you're not in AAA and not named...

Facing another Bowie lineup stacked with major league players, Altoona fell behind early on Sunday afternoon and couldn’t recover, losing 4-2. The Curve got a run in the 1st on doubles by Robbie Grossman and Tony Sanchez. Matt McSwain, making a spot start necessitated by a recent doubleheader, got hit hard in...

The Curve faced a Bowie team loaded with major league players on Saturday, but it wasn’t the major leaguers who did them in. Bowie’s lineup included major league veterans Endy Chavez, Mark Reynolds and Josh Barfield, and the Baysox’ starting pitcher was Zach Britton, who started 28 games for the Orioles last...

Altoona took an early 4-0 lead on Friday in the first of four games at Bowie, then held off the Baysox for a 5-3 win. The Curve scored two in the first on RBI singles by Brock Holt and Matt Curry. They added two in the second when Quincy Latimore and Robbie...